The gentle beast
by leafyling
Summary: What if the only way to save the person is to crush him? He has the sharpest sight but yet spiritually blind. She gave up what she loved trying to show him the finer things in life, but will she succeed? And will the knight stands a chance to fight against the king? (OC x Akashi x Kasamatsu )
1. A dot of blue

Disclaimer: I do not own the story nor the character.

* * *

.

"I had no idea that you would be so important to me the first time we met."-unknown.

.

* * *

**_~ Chapter 1 ~_**

A dot of blue fell into the corner of his eyes when Kasamatsu Yukio entered the basketball court. Turning his sight to the direction where the blue came from, he saw a group of girls walking through the side of the court where the couch were currently sitting at. And the blue dot which caught his eyes happened to be the hair color of one of the girls.

What a rare color, he thought.

But at this moment, the number of girls standing alongside the court was the thing that caught more of his attention. They must be the freshmen who were going to attend the interview to become the manager. The position is always competitive, girls will come and fight for it every brand new year. However, the number of applicants normally kept around 10-15. But for some reason, the number had been doubled or perhaps tripled this year. Kasamatsu slightly frowned in confusion when a high-pitched tone suddenly echoed around the court.

"Kise-kun!"

One of the girls inside the court shouted at Kise who had just walked in, followed by half amount of them waving at him. Kise waved back with a cheerful smile. So it seemed that the blondy was the cause of the multiplication. Kasamatsu rolled his eyes and pulled the taller guy towards the changing room after rewarding his butt a kick.

The blunette slightly turned her head to the direction of the attention receiver, a familiar blonde was being dragged away from the girls' direction. She arched her brow subtly and turn back to the coach, who seemed to be a little annoyed by what had just happened.

"Students, there are a few things that I would like to make it clear before we start our interview."

The ball looking coach made a few cough and began.

"Anyone of you who came for the boys, who are not willing to stay back every practice, or couldn't handle the first aid kit, you may leave now. "

Silent wandered among the girls when the coach had finished with his declaration. They exchanged sights with each other but no one moved. Seeing this, the coach with a pregnant belly sighed and continued.

"As a manager, you will not stand aside of the court like a decoration, but to deal with all the dirty towels, application forms of the competition, and sometimes as an interim coach."

The coach paused to scan their reaction before he went on.

"We would not like to embarrass anyone by kicking her out of the position half way, which is not a fresh incident in the basketball team. It would be very troublesome for us as well. "

Some of the girls made displeasure groan while the blunette stayed neutral. Seeing that his words finally worked, he coach made his declared once more.

"Anyone here who do not meet the three requirements which I had stated just now, you may leave."

After the disqualification section, there were only seven girls left in the court. Inwardly, the coach sighed at the outcome of his speech, he reminded himself to demand more laps from the blonde for causing him extra troubles.

"And for you girls, had anyone of you taken this position before?"

To the blunette terror, the other six raised their hand in reply, left her the only one inexperienced, which narrowed her possibility of being chosen.

* * *

When the practice ended, the coach called the captain to his direction and briefly introduced both of the new managers to him. The girl with long blue hair was one of them.

For Kasamatsu whom had expected a more competent looking manager, he was slightly shocked of the result. The blunette sense of presence wasn't strong, and even the significant blue hair doesn't help her to gain any extra attention. But she wasn't bad looking , at all.

Kasamatsu stiffed a little when the coach left him and the girls alone. Growing up in an all-guys family caused him clueless of how to react in front of the opposite gender. Making a small exhale, he started to speak.

"I am Kasamatsu Yu-"

"Tsukicchi!"

A dash of yellow passed through him to the blunette and before Kasamatsu could react, the blonde greet the blue with a bear hug. Shock written on her face, but it was replaced by a smile when Tsukida Hanabi found out who it was.

"It is nice meeting you again, Ryota-kun"

* * *

**A/N**: I can hardly remembered how did the story sneaked into my mind, but I like it a lot . This is my first English fanfiction , feel free to leave me a review , I would like to know if you guys like the story :) Suggestion are welcome.


	2. The Gentle Beast

**~Chapter 2~**

After a tiring day of schools and basketball training , Kasamatsu's ideal way of spending his spare time is to have a warm bath and watch the latest NBA online. But thanks to his overenthusiastic blondy teammate, he was now sitting opposite of a blunette, who happened to be Kise's middle school mate, inside a western restaurant.

Kasamatsu wondered how long would it take for that yellow haired jerk to get out of the wash room. His sight drifted around purposelessly, feeling that he should start a conversation to end the awkward silent. But what should he say? Words just came out automatically when he speaks to guys , but when it came to approaching girls, he felt like an uninspirational writer. He tried to recall what the girls in his class would usually talk about: make up, horoscope, TV drama and…Kise? He raised an eyebrow when the last one came into his mind. Non of the topic seemed to be appropriate.

"Tsukida, erm…have you been a manager before? "

After making a few rounds of rehearsal in his mind , he finally squeezed out a question.

"No."

Tsukida Hanabi replied with a gentle smile.

"Oh I see, so…what brings you here? I mean, girls normally don't like basketball."

"It seems that I am the sort of abnormal girls."

"No! Err… I wasn't referring to that…erm…"

Kasamatsu groaned inwardly. He didn't know if he had said anything wrong. He tried to think of a reply but was currently out of vocabulary.

"I was just kidding. "

All the messy thoughts stopped when Tsukida clarified with a smile. Sighing inwardly, Kasamatsu has a strong feeling that he will never master the skill of opposite gender communication. Girls are mostly attentive and moody, it is hard to define whether they are joking or being serious. Giving out an exhale, he looked at the floor, hesitating of what he should say next.

"I love basketball. "

Kasamatsu looked up when Tsukida spoke, her fair skin was powdered by goldish-red sunlight, large blue eyes were like quiet water, with a straight thin brow lying calmly on top of it. The long silky hair showed a gentle blue , as if it was dyed using the pigment made from the big blue sky. She took up the glass from the table gently and made a small sip, her movement was graceful, as if she was one of the noble who walked out from the ancient drama show. Kasamatsu didn't notice how long he has been staring at her.

"I love it, a lot…that's why I am here."

She made a small pause and looked away before finishing the sentence. Although her expression showed no changes, he did not miss the tiny sign of diffident.

"Tsukida-cchi! Sempai! I'm back. "

Kise sat down beside Kasamatsu with glee. Kasamatsu felt relief for his return.

"I thought you flushed yourself away."

"I just took some time to reset my hair."

Kasamatsu raised one side of his brow when he looked at him. his hair didn't seem much different. Kise will sometimes complain about his bad hair day when no one else but himself thought the same. Kasamatsu who care less about how his own hair looks like would never understand his behavior.

Tsukida's phone suddenly rang, she took the phone out from her pocket and Kise went closer to see who called.

"It's Kuroko-cchi!"

"Please excuse me."

Tsukida walked out of the restaurant while answering the phone , leaving both of them inside.

"Sempai, What were you guys talking about ?"

"Gossiping about you."

"Owwww, That is so meannnnn!"

Kise pretended to sob, Kasamatsu didn't brother to declare that it was only a joke.

"We talked about the manager thing… and she said she love basketball."

"Oh yes, she is a good player."

"Hn… …Huh?"

Kasamatsu wasn't paying much attention to the conversation until he reacted on what Kise has said.

"You mean she played? In the team? Of Teiko?"

"Yup, She was the captain."

Tsukida Hanabi ,the one who brought Teiko girl basketball team into two years of championship, and the captain of the team.

Also known as The Gentle Beast.

Eyes widen in disbelieve, Kasamatsu looked out of the window where she was standing. She was thin, and her physical feature looked fragile, as if she would break into half if a basketball hits her. He couldn't believe that the ballerina looking girl would be a basketball player, imagining her playing on court wearing a basketball jersey is the same as Kasamatsu himself dancing on stage with a tutu. Not to mention that she was the captain of the team.

But with such ability and passion , he wondered what made her quit.

.

* * *

**A/N**: Kasamatsu is not as remarkable as the GoM but I think that he is kinda cute, I like him more after I start writing him. Anyway, I wonder if any of you guys thought that Tsukida was actually a female Kuroko? I actually wanna create a girl version of Kuroko but let Kuroko remains, that's how Tsukida came alive. The original Kuroko is too cute to be removed from the story. Please leave a review about how you think of the story.

Thank you for the reviews , it really is a huge encouragement to me :D

**AmethystRosa: **Thank you~! Anyway if you are looking for a nice KnB fanfic, I found emperor's proposal a good one, had you read it?  
**Epic Potatoes : **Thank you! :)**  
**


	3. The jade shooter

**~Chapter 3~**

.

"Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it."― J.M. Barrie, _Peter Pan_

_._

* * *

.

Holding a box of new jersey, Tsukida walked slowly towards the girls' basketball court. The bird-like squeaky sound of player running around the court welcomed her before she entered. She was required to hand the box of jersey to the girl caption.

Things went smoothly since the day she became manager. The position was not challenging, mostly dealing with trivial works (like dirty towelsss).

She set her sight on the building, the grayish-green block was huge, with large glass window on the four side of the building. The building was surrounded by cherry blossom tree, just like the basketball court in Teiko. When she passed by, the similar scenery gave her an illusion that she was actually walking in her middle school. Sometimes before opening the door, she would expect herself to be greeted by a bunch of noisy girls. But at the end, she only sees unfamiliar faces… …a reminder to her that she was no longer in Teiko.

She missed basketball, a lot.

Giving out a small exhale, she pushed the door with her knee. Before she could react, a huge orange ball greeted her on her face, her body tilted backwards as she lost her balance, the jersey flew off her hand. It was too painful, she couldn't make any instant reaction to save herself from butt-kissing the floor. As she almost fell, she felt her back being held by a strong pair of hand.

"Are you okie?"

Her eyes were shut but she recognized the voice, it was Kasamatsu. She covered her face with both hands, tears burst out without her even noticing, the level of pain made she assumed that she might be disfigured.

It seemed that the basketball missed her a lot, too.

After a few seconds, Tsukida slowly put down her hand, as she opened her eyes, a blur figure of Kasamatsu popped in front of her. Other than his iconic blushing face, she saw a worried captain. Frowning as she mopped away the tears, a drop of liquid dripped down from her nose onto the floor. It was blood.

Kasamatsu quickly took out a pack of tissue and pressed it on her nose, he asked her to raise her head to prevent more blood from dripping down. She was a little surprised, most guy wouldn't carry tissue with them.

A few girls went to check out on her situation, one of them kept bowing as she apologized to Tsukida. She didn't really see who the girl was as she claimed that it was okie. Since she could only keep her sight on the ceiling, Kasamatsu held her elbow and walked her to the nearby bench. Although she could not see it, but she was pretty sure that the captain was a little uneasy while holding her. He asked her to rest on the bench and he would pass the jersey for her.

He was a sweet guy, she thought. If anyone asked her for a boyfriend recommendation, she might introduce her to the captain. Laughing inwardly on her thoughts, Tsukida wasn't aware that someone was coming.

"Hanabi?"

Tsukida dropped her sight to look for speaker and she found a girl standing in front of her. She was about Kasamatsu's height (very tall for a girl), with shoulder length hair of a rare leafy color. Her skin was fair and pinkish, like strawberry yogurt. She has thick lower lashes decorating her long jade eyes.

It was her, Midorima Shiori.

.

* * *

.

"I had never seen you since new year! I missed soooo much! …Oh my! Your hair grew so much, the last time I met you it was about breast length... Are you staying in the dorm? Ya I know that it only takes 40 minute to get here from Tokyo, but wasting one and half hour on MRT everyday doesn't sound fun to me... Had you seen Kise? Oh gosh he'd grown so much, it is not like onii-san didn't grow, but you know, I had never seen him for quite a while, he must be eating fertilizer, or else I don't see what makes him grow so fast… "

Since she sat down on the bench beside Tsukida half an hour ago, Midorima Shiori had not stopped talking. She was an incredible speaker who could speak 24 hours nonstop. While exercising her mouth, she spun the ball with her index finger, it was a subconscious habit of hers'. The leafy head was a former basketball team member of Shoei middle school, a friend of Tsukida, and the twin sister of Midorima Shintaro.

Yes, the speaking machine is the TWIN SISTER of Midorima Shintaro.

For anyone who had only known the GOM No.1 shooter, they would never imagine that there was actually a female version of Midorima Shintaro (seriously, one horoscope jerk is more than enough). But when people get to know her, they'll find out that the girl held a complete different personality. She is talkative, friendly, energetic and straightforward. Moreover, she does not bring funky item with her wherever she goes. The twins were antonyms of each other.

"I thought you were going to Shutoku, with Shintaro-kun."

"If I were to study in tokyo, I would have went to Seirin."

Looking at Shiori reflectively, Tsukida suddenly smile in understanding.

"Oh…because of him, right?"

Tsukida giggled while Shiori blushed, she knew that her friend secretly admire a member from the Seirin basketball team, Shiori had once struggled to make a decision between Kaijo and Seirin. Since Seirin did not offered a girl's team, going to the same school with him means giving up basketball.

Unlike Tsukida, she made a totally different decision.

"The other G.O.M. are in Tokyo, that is why I chose Kaijo."

Sliding back a little, Shiori threw the ball to Tsukida's direction with single hand, she caught the ball and placed it on the bench.

G.O.M. … She should have know it.

The G.O.M. that Shiori mentioned was actually referring to "Girls of Miracle". It was a general designation of the five best female players among the middle school in Japan, and also a correspondence designation of the Generation of Miracles (GOM). Unlike the guys, Girls of Miracle came from different middle school. They were the most challenging opponent of one and other. While choosing high school, they avoided clashing in the same school with any of the G.O.M.

But at the moment, two of the G.O.M. were sitting side by side of each other with the same uniform.

They were the Gentle Beast of Teiko and the Jade Shooter of Shoei.

For the Gentle Beast, clashing doesn't seem to be a matter anymore, for some (red) reason, she would no longer be playing basketball.

Shiori knew that since very long ago, but she was clueless of her present in Kaijo.

"And why are you here? I thought you were going to Seirin with Kuroko. "

Staring at her friend, a light smile appeared as Tsukida lowered her voice.

"It was because of the captain."

"Captain?...Captain Kasamatsu?"

She remained smiling but did not say anything. Shiori stared at Tsukida with her mouth wide opened.

"Wait wait wait wait. …You fell for him?! Kasamatsu?...Senpai?! "

The girls on court looked towards their direction as Shiori shouted out unconsciously. Face palm inwardly, Tsukida pinched her friend with an expressionless face. When Shiori finally noticed her stupidity, she immediately covered her mouth with both hands as she looked around with a pair of widen eyes.

Ahhh, she would only make things worse.

As Shiori gave her an apologizing smile, Tsukida made an exhale and looked up to the ceiling.

"But honestly, I wish I could… falling for another guy sounds much easier."

She closed her eyes with a tired smile as Shiori remained silent.

Silent surrounded them as they turned their head to the direction of the players. Shiori wasn't paying attention to the girls on court, there were other stuff wandering in her head.

"So it seems that you had really made up your mind to quit the game."

"Yes."

Shiori paused reflectively and turned to face her friend, she locked her eyes into hers with a serious expression.

"It is not that I am pouring cold water on you, but it is Akashi Seijuro that you're facing. The chance of defeating him is rare, like hitting jackpot. "

It wasn't a sarcastic to her, Tsukida was not weak. But pulling the red-head captain down from his unshakable victory just doesn't seem to be possible. She had seen one of the matches the GOM played during their final year. She was well aware of how strong they were, especially the red-head captain. Akashi winning is a fact, Tsukida's goal of defeating the captain seemed to be a fruitless plan.

Thus, there was a greater reason for Tsukida to give up.

"You love basketball, don't you?"

The blunette said nothing, But she knew the answer very well. She knew exactly how much it meant to the blunette.

Basketball carried too much wonderful memory of hers'. It was the memory of friendship, growth, tears and laugher.

But she knew that she has to defeat him, her goal would remain unachieved if she has too much things to focus on. She had to give up basketball.

To achieve one's goal, an equal sacrifice must be made.

Pouting her mouth, Shiori took the ball and stood up in front of her. Shiori raised a side of her brow as she was looking at Tsukida.

"Too bad, I was planning to pay you revenge, you know?"

On the middle school tournament last year, Shoei lost the final match against Teiko. Shiori swore that she would win for the next time. But after the game, she found out that the Gentle Beast would no longer be playing basketball.

What a disappointment.

Without saying goodbye, Shiori turned away and walked to the direction of the changing room. After moving a few steps, she turned back facing her again. The ball was spinning on her finger when she spoke.

"But anyway…"

Shiori threw the ball to her once again. Tsukida stared at the giant orange and raised her sight to the jade shooter with a little confusion.

"If this is your decision, I'll sure support you."

Shiori grinned widely as she gave her blunette friend a thumbs up, she turned away when Tsukida threw the ball back to her, catching it without turning back her body. Watching her back, Tsukida couldn't help but smile.

Thank you.

.

* * *

.

** A/N: **Hello guys , sorry for the late update. As you guys see, I'd added in another OC character, I did it simply because KnB was lack of girls, it is hard for my story to go on with only all the guys character. So what do you guys think about Shiori and my new chapter? Please do review and let me know, I had been a little lonely writing without any feedback, hehe~  
For anyone who is waiting for Akashi, you might have to bare for a while, the Akashi part is on the latter part of the story :)  
School started and I will be getting busy soon, so the next update will be at least a month later.

.

* * *

.

About the meaning of their names, Tsukida Hanabi means moon(Tsuki) farm(da) fireworks(Hanabi), so when we combine everything togather, we'll get a picture of fireworks blooming beside the moon above a huge field.

Shiori means poem(Shi) weave(ori), it is actually a very elegant name (given to a not very elegant girl).


End file.
